Corkscrew
Swamp Sanctuary
Along the
Boardwalk
September, 2008 www.corkscrew.audubon.org
Bird conservation initiative begins
The Florida Bird Conservation Ini-
tiative (FBCI) has been launched by a
consortium of organizations in Florida,
including Audubon of Florida. A web
site with information is at
www.myfwc.com/FBCI/FBCI_index.htm.
The FBCI web site will serve as a
clearinghouse of information and a
helpful tool on bird conservation in
Florida. It will always be a work in
progress and visitors are encouraged to
input ideas and projects to improve it.
Specifically, please review the site and
send in any additional information that
you think should be included.
Visitors are encouraged to stop by
the “Projects” page on the site and take
a few minutes to enter their avian
projects into the project database. This
database will be a searchable and com-
prehensive snapshot of avian research
going on in Florida.
Help and participation are needed
Quick ID Guide: Queen, Soldier, and Viceroy butterflies
Queen: From above, look for
white spots that extend to the bottom
of the fore wing and for a lack of, or
very faint, vein lines in the wings.
With wings folded, look for a dark
crescent arcing toward the body on the
hind wing.
Bird Trivia
Bobwhite may return
to improve communication among
those working with bird conservation
in Florida.
Volunteers can join the
Florida Bird Conservation
Initiative listerv to stay con-
nected with the avian com-
munity in Florida.
To join, email
listserv@listserv.MyFWC.com.
Leave the subject line blank
and in the message box, type
“Subscribe FBCI-L.” When
a confirmation email is re-
ceived, reply by leaving the
subject line as is and typing
“OK” in the message box.
Members of the listserv will re-
ceive instructions on how to post and
reply to the listserv.
For questions or more information,
please feel free to contact Elena Sachs
at Elena.Sachs@myfwc.com.
Soldier: From above, look for
white spots only at the upper tips of the
fore wings and for a pronounced vein
pattern in both the fore and hind wings.
With wings folded, look for a row
of very pale whitish spots on the hind
wing and almost no crescent.
Do birds chew their food?
Discover the answer at www.collieraudubon.org/birding.html
Corkscrew received a Volunteer
Days grant from Audubon’s and
Toyota’s TogetherGreen program to
fund six days of beginning restoration
of the John and David Rigsby Tract
(tree farm) north of the Blair Center.
The goal is to create habitats for
Gopher Tortoises and Bobwhite Quail.
Different days will have different
activities, which may include plant and
wildlife monitoring, ex-
otic plant removal, plant-
ing native vegetation, and
helping create a new pub-
lic access trail to the area.
Volunteers can be Cork-
screw volunteers, college
students, and anyone in-
terested in helping. Indi-
viduals can help on one or
more of the days, but the
grant requires a commit-
ment of six hours of work
on any specific day.
Materials, refreshments and a rec-
ognition event at the end of each day
will be provided. Contact Sally if in-
terested in helping on these Saturdays:
• September 27 • January 24
• November 1 • April 25
• December 13 • May 9
Viceroy: From above, look for a
dark bar that crosses the hind wing and
for pronounced vein patterns in both the
fore and hind wings.
With wings folded, look for a
strong vertical black stripe on the hind
wing
 In Case a Visitor Asks
How does aquatic life reestablish itself after a prolonged dry period?
The wet season has finally re-
turned, and with the rise in water lev-
els comes the return of aquatic life.
During the dry season, many fish
die due to desiccation or predation
while some survive by seeking out dry-
season refuges such as alligator holes,
canals, and lakes where they live
throughout the dry spring months.
Crayfish burrow underground just
before the marsh dries and retain mois-
ture while other species (e.g. apple
snails) are adpated to survive aestiva-
tion on the dry marsh surface.
When the wet season returns, it
takes time for fish to disperse from their
refuges throughout the system, so most
wetlands exist for several weeks as vir-
An immature Yellow Rat Snake seeks a route to
a nearby tree near the north lake (August 22).
Exotic Species Threat
Exotic beetles threaten Red Bay, Swamp Bay, Palamedes Swallowtail
“You may be seeing extinction in
progress,” said Georgia forester Chip
Bates. “This disease is coming your
way, and man, it moves fast. Twenty
miles per year.”
Red Bay Ambrosia Beetles were
first detected near Savannah, Georgia,
in 2002, probably arriving in wood on
a container ship from Asia. The beetles
carry Laurel Wilt, a fungal disease,
which kills Red Bay. Related species,
including Swamp Bay, Sassafras and
possibly Avocado, are also at risk.
The Red Bay Ambrosia Beetle in-
troduces the fungus into the tree’s sap-
tually fishless systems.
Taking advantage of the fact that
there are few predators, invertebrates
thrive. One of the first aquatic species
to arrive are the Everglades crayfish
who emerge from their burrows and
quickly begin reproducing. At the same
time, other aquatic invertebrates (insect
larvae) and tadpoles become numerous
due to the abundance of habitat (aquatic
plants) and food (algae from decaying
plants).
After about 4-6 weeks, native fish
become more numerous. The first spe-
cies to appear are generally mosqui-
tofish, flagfish and juvenile sunfish.
Another crayfish species, the slough
crayfish, and grass shrimp also appear
August Sightings
A Spicebush Swallowtail pauses on a fallen
Pigweed Stalk at the north lake (August 15).
wood by boring tunnels into Red Bays,
laying eggs, depositing the Laurel Wilt
spores, and then farming the
fungus. Within weeks, or months at
most, the fungus clogs the tree’s circu-
latory system and it dies.
As of January, 2007, Laurel Wilt
was present along the Atlantic coast
from Charleston, SC, to south of Jack-
sonville with an outlying infestation in
Indian River County, FL.
Red Bays are host to three butter-
flies: palamedes, Schaus, and spicebush
swallowtails. The range of the
palamedes overlays that of its sole host
during this time as connective patches
are created between water bodies.
The diversity and abundance of
native fish species rises rapidly as the
season continues, eventually including
least killifish, bluefin killifish, and adult
sunfish. The fishes that occupy forested
wetlands are habitat generalists: they
are adapted to constant changes in the
availability and amount of food and
other necessary resources.
While it is surprising that aquatic
life can return so quickly following last
year’s drought conditions, forested
wetlands are by nature dynamic eco-
systems. It’s all part of life for a fish in
the forest.
–Nicole Katin
A Scarlet Hibiscus blooms in the north lake
above a blanket of Duckweed (August 8).
plant, the Red Bay. The worst case sce-
nario is the butterfly’s extinction in the
next decade or two.
Many trees develop chemical de-
fenses to thwart attacks by insects and
disease, but the Red Bay has no such
protection against the Laurel Wilt fun-
gus. The prospects of halting the spread
of Laurel Wilt and the beetles are
bleak. No pesticides have been found
effective against the beetles, and even
if some were found, individual trees
would have to be inoculated by hand.
More information: www.nature.org/initiatives/
forests/files/fy08redbaywilt.pdf

Bullfrogs just croak, or so every-
one thought until early settlers heard
large grunting frogs in Southern
swamps.
It was a big noise that some said
sounded like a pig and others likened
to an alligator. “Pig” frog won as the
common name for Rana grylio, an ex-
clusively Southern bullfrog. The con-
fusion still exists. Visitors on the board-
walk often mistake the calls of Pig Frog
for those of alligators and excitedly re-
port hearing choruses of alligators in
the marsh and cypress forest.
The scientific name Rana grylio
reflects the common name: Rana from
the Latin rana for frog and grylio from
the Greek gryllos for pig.
Pig Frogs have three different calls.
The regular call sounds like the guttural
grunt of a pig; a second call sounds like
the single snapping of a really large,
stretched and taut rubber band; the fi-
nal call, an alarm call, is a single
squeak. Female Pig Frogs are usually
silent, but when alarmed they too pro-
duce the low-pitched alarm call.
Breeding choruses usually erupt at
night when the majority of the mating
occurs. Rainy or humid overcast
weather seems to provide conditions
that make for the most active mating.
During their mating season, which
is typically late spring and summer
when the waters return, male Pig Frogs
grunt their presence and territory, which
sends a signal to any ripe and ready fe-
males in the neighborhood to come on
over for a little amplexus.
Amplexus, below, consists of a
male climbing on top of the female and
clasping her. In
response, she
lays a swarm of
up to 10,000
eggs in a floating
film of transpar-
ent jelly, which
he fertilizes.
Then they part,
and he resumes
his calling for
another mate.
Profile
greenish. Adult Pig Frog colors range
Pig Frog from blackish-brown and extremely
Rana grylio dark olive green, to bright green, to yel-
low. Most of the time, there are scat-
Eggs are laid in relatively still, tered dark spots on the back. The belly
warm water, so they must develop on is usually whitish but may also have
the surface in order to receive a steady dark spots, commonly toward the rear.
supply of oxygen. Submerged or dried Some males have bright yellow throats.
out eggs die. Adult male and female Pig Frogs
The eggs hatch in two to three days can be distinguished by the tympanum
and the tadpoles begin a one-year de- (outer ear located just behind the eye).
velopmental sequence into frogs. The That of the male is noticeably larger
eggs appear to have no animal preda- than the eye while that of the female is
tors, so their only threat is the receding about the same size or smaller than the
water. eye.
Tadpoles in the northern range take Adult sizes range from three and a
a little longer to develop while those in half inches to six and a half inches. Pig
the southern range (here) take a shorter Frogs are the second largest frog in
time. The tad- Florida, behind
poles are quite the Bullfrog. Al-
large, to five though some
inches, with Bullfrogs may be
extremely found in South-
long tails. At west Florida, the
first they are a southern tip of
solid dark their range is
greenish typically around
color, but as Tampa.
they mature Pig Frogs
they become Male, tympanum larger than eye, left; female, have narrow,
more colorful tympanum smaller than eye, right. pointed heads –
with yellow the snout is nar-
bellies, yellow spots on their sides, and rower and more pointed than that of a
greenish to black on top. After resorb- Bullfrog. Pig Frogs can be distin-
ing their tails and becoming air-breath- guished from other aquatic frogs in
ing frogs, the adults remain in the same Corkscrew by their hind feet, which are
habitat as when they were tadpoles. fully webbed; the webbing on the long-
Pig Frogs are opportunistic feed- est toe extends almost all the way to
ers that will eat insects, worms, small the tip while webbing on the longest
amphibians, small crustaceans like toe of other large frogs’ rear feet stops
snails and crayfish, and small reptiles. well before the tip.
In turn, they are Pig Frogs are aquatic frogs, so they
food for all wad- will be found in permanent open wa-
ing birds as well ters of ponds, streams, lakes, rivers,
as for owls, swamps, and marshes. They may either
hawks, alliga- float in open water or choose a station
tors, and other on or amid floating vegetation. They
carnivores. are much more aquatic in nature than
Young Pig Bullfrogs. They are found in the entire
Frogs are uni- state of Florida and into southern and
formly dark but coastal South Carolina, Georgia, Ala-
they can some- bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and ex-
times be dark treme eastern coastal Texas.